CCCXV111 LIFE OF BACON. 



gratuities, and the Lord Chancellor before, and others 

 before him ? I have amongst the muniments of my own 

 estate, an entry of a payment to a former Chancellor of a 

 sum for the pains he had taken in hearing our cause.&quot; (a) 



This custom of judges receiving presents was not peculiar 

 to England, but existed in the most enlightened govern 

 ments ; in the different states of Greece ; in all feudal states ; 

 in France, where the suitors always presented the judge 

 with some offering in conformity with their established 

 maxim, &quot; Non deli her etur donee solventur species ;&quot; and in 

 England, from time immemorial, (b) It existed before the 

 time of King John, and during his reign ; and notwith 

 standing the rights secured at Runnymede, it has ever 

 continued. It existed in the reign of Henry the Fifth; 

 and although, during the reign of Henry the Eighth, Sir 

 Thomas More declined to receive presents, his very power 

 of declining proves that it was customary to offer them, 



(a) See note (a), next page. 



(6) Barrington, in his observations on the statutes, as a note to Nulli 

 vendemus nulli negabimus aut differemus rectum vel justitiam, says, &quot; This 

 part of Magna Charta is calculated to prevent abuses in the crown with 

 regard to the administration of justice and in some cases the parties litigant 

 offered part of what they were to recover, to the crown.&quot; 



Maddox, in his History of the Exchequer, collects likewise many 

 instances of fines for the King s favour, and particularly William Stutewell, 

 presented to King John three thousand marks, for giving judgment with 

 relation to the barony of Mowbray, which Stutewell gave against William 

 de Mowbray, (I) Petyt. MSS. vol. i. p. 57, where the proceedings may be 

 likewise seen. 



&quot; It was usual to pay fines anciently for delaying law proceedings, 

 even to the extent of the defendant s life ; sometimes they were exacted to 

 expedite process, and to obtain right. The county of Norfolk (always 

 represented as a litigious county, insomuch that the number of attornies 

 allowed to practise in it is reduced by a statute of Henry the Sixth to eight) 

 paid an annual composition at the Exchequer, that they might be fairly 

 dealt with.&quot; Maddox, Hist. Exch. p. 205. 



The Dean of London paid twenty marks to the King, that he might 

 assist him against the bishop in a law-suit. 



